Projects Ever have a tool or machine that is just an old friend . . . OT

This is kind of an OT post, but I was working in the shop today on a new oil-pump pickup for my early Hemi and needed to be able to surface a new cover plate for the oil pump -- it really needs to be flat as hell and nicely finished.

Anyway, to make a long story short (and I tend to babble), I decided to resurrect my old surface grinder. It was my Dads - we used it to sharpen punch-press dies, and I took it apart and shipped it to Columbus after he died. It has sat for the last 8 years - in pieces. The machine is probably 40 - 50 years old, but a nice tool.

Well, today was the day that I decided to bring it back, put all the pieces back together and run it once again. Was just cool to see it working once again . . . to feel the dials, oil the ways, etc . . .

It is a funny thing, haven't used the machine in at least 10 years (Dad died 15 years ago), but once I had it together, oiled, tuned, etc . . . the grinder was like my old friend . . . glad to see me once again . . . and I glad to be using him again. It was like I stepped back in time 25 years -- working in my Dad's shop, doing tool n' die stuff . . . came back to me in an instant, didn't even have to think about how to use it.

Any of you guys have soft spots for certain machines or tools that belonged to somebody you cared about? I'm fortunate to have a few machine tools that were all my Dads, I've restored most of them . . . use them on a regular basis and they make me happy.

I'm a lucky bastard to have all these great memories . . . thanks for listening

Here is the little sucker . . . it is a wonderful little machine:

 

Funny you should bring this up. I'm doing some bodywork on my 61 belair. I was sitting there watching welds cool, and I picked up my body hammer and stared at it....I've had it since 1977, dad bought it for me when I was 16. It's the only body hammer I can use, I've tried others, they just don't work right.

 

I have a little Ball peen hammer that my dad put a handle off a broken Bonney Ratchet on. I use it all the time its my favorite hammer i own

I also got a homemade anvil from my Dad that was at my Grandpas farm. I beat on that thing all the time when i was a kid. Its just a piece of Railroad track with a chunk of 1" plate welded on top but i wouldn't trade it for a real anvil. It just wouldn't be the same

 

I have a lot of tools that my Dad or myself have made over the years, and I use them on a daily basis. BTW my Dad passed away back in 1977 but the tools he made are still working just as good as the day he built them.

 

Most of my old friends are tools,lol.

 

Now that is funny . . . cracked me right the hell up!

 

I have my grampas old manual tire machine. He is long gone, but the machine is now even used by my kids.

When I was 16, I couldn't afford to buy tires, so often I would get used tires from friends when their new cars had to have new tires. EVERY time I would go over there to use that tire machine, there he was telling me how to use it, the same way he had before.

As I got older, and after I had a tire shop crack the center on an old torque thrust, I would go there to put new tires on my old rims because I didnt trust shops anymore. I must had used that machine at least 100 times before, but there he was, each and every time telling me how to use it.

I sure do miss him.

 

My grandpa gave me a very old, very small snap on hammer. I would assume it is for aluminum as he was in the airforce as a mechanic. I have never had a need for it, but just knowing it was used by him makes it priceless.

 

all of machines and tools are,,,,

http://35hotrod.smugmug.com/Machines/Work-Shop/2649184_H5Amu#140021162_jWtUd

 

Not a tool, but I have an old swirl glass blue shift ball my Dad put on his '34 before he went to europe in '42. My Mom kept the '34 during the war and when Pop returned the shift knob was on about every rod he owned up until they took his license away. On day before he passed he gave me the knob to keep the flame, ( I'm the only one of my three brothers and one sister thats a rodder), and I've had it ever since. I no longer run it my rods because about two or threee years ago I caught some kids about 16 trying to get it off my roadster at the Wildwood Nats. They couldn't understand why I was so pissed that they tried to lift a stupid old shift knob. If they only knew......

 

I hear yah there -- what a great keepsake to remind you of your Pops. Did you happen to end up with his 34?

 

I have a set of my grandfathers(and maybe great-grandfathers)off-set box wrenches. I always seem to grab them when I am in a pickle. And they always seem to work to get me out. I like to think my grand-father is helping me out when I use them.

 

My father (thats also a bodyman)has body tools from the 50,s and up,slappers,shrinkers,lead tools etc.,i allways end up in his box using them when working on some of the old tin,,,

 

Dad's Van Norman is at the top of my list. It's been in the familly since the late 1960's.

 

i have lots of my father's old tools. probably the ones i use the most are the B-2 Beverly shear he bought used in 1955 , the Bluepoint kingpin reamers he bought new in 1929 , and the hydraulic press in bought in the 80s

 

I have a body hammer that Dad gave me when I was 18. Everybody I work with understands that not only is it a great hammer, but to NEVER use it for anything other than it's purpose.

 

My dad's old craftsman rachets (with the wheel you can turn with you fingers on the head)

 

My Dad had an old gap bed lathe that I started using in 1964 when I was 9 years old. Dad passed away almost 2 years ago and I am finally going to be bringing the old lathe home in a couple of weeks. I really love making things on the old lathe but I sure wish Dad was here help..........

 

I have an S-K 1/2" ratchet that I got as the FIRST tool I bought when we owned a Gulf Station in Long Beach in 1972. It still has my old California drivers license number etched into the handle. It has always been the first tool I have reached for when there was a lot of torque needed. I've changed VW rear brakes with that wrench and a ten foot length of pipe slipped over the handle.
After all these years, the mechanism just started acting up when tightening. I'm really hoping that S-K emerges from their troubles and I can get a rebuild kit for this guy.
Old friendships need to be tended and mintained.

 

I was using an old 9/16" combination wrench the other day and I had to laugh. I had found it in the middle of Higbie Lane in my hometown on Long Island in 1964. It was right on the yellow solid line and hadn't even been run over.

The brand is "Par-X" and I have never seen one of their tools before or since. The wrench has bounced around with me as a kid fixing bikes and lawn mowers, followed me around to various gigs as a professional mechanic. As popular a 9/16 wrench is, I'm amazed that no one ever walked off with it.

Bob

 

I have a modern digital micrometer/caliper. Just a decent quality no-name chinese item. It's not an old tool or full of character, but it is very reliable and absolutely invaluable. I use it at least once every day and it never lets me down. No doubt it will eventually die and it obviously cannot be repaired - I'll be sad to see it go.

On the nostalgic side, I have a small trolley jack given to me by my late father. It's about the only thing of his I have and I will repair and restore that when it fails. Hopefully I'll pass it on to my kids.

 

Funny how this thread came up as I just had " one of those moments " last Friday. I was drilling a hole in a bracket and my cordless MAC drill died ( battery gave up ) ... so I went to the old Army footlocker ( that I got from my Dad's estate ) where I keep a good many of my old tools. I pulled out the small, shiny Craftsman 1/4 electric drill and went to work. When I was finished ... I went to wipe the fingerprints off the drill to put it away and saw WBN stamped in the handle. The drill was my Dad's. I remember when I was about 8 or 9 ... him stamping his intials on the handle because he and my uncle had bought the same drill, at the same time ( I was with them ).

Unfortunately, both my uncle WMN and my Dad are gone. But just using that drill bought back great memories and good feelings.

 

x2.

My Grandpa Kerns' body is buried, but late at night when Momma and the kids are asleep, he and his tools are still busy helping me.

 

Craftmans chain wrench, used to be Dads... bet he's still wondering were it is..

 

Wow! some great memories you guy's have! My Dad died when I was 11, he wasn't the handiest of handyman, so memories of him don't come back with the very few tools he had. I do have lots of old tools though, wonder who used these tools before me, how they would think I treat them. Do I put as much pride in what I do with them as they did? Sometimes when I think I've done a good job, somehow the light hits the panel in a different way, ah hah thought you were done.....not quite! No slackers! Thanks for starting this thread, ot but a Good OT!

 

When my dad died in 04 I was the executor of the estate. He'd been a machanic all his life so I scarfed up all the snap-on wrenches and liquidated all the jap tools.
But, my favorite tool has to be the great big ol' Case pocket knife that he always kept in the top of his box. It was filthy and rusted when I first got it. I cleaned, buffed and sharpened it to look and operate like new. It's a constant companion on my desk and it gets used to open all my mail. I think of my dad with every piece of mail I open.
Those Snap On tools have a separate drawer in my tool box and I like using them on my 34.

 

I am lucky to still have dad; he was broadsided by a Peterbuilt wrecker in 1986 and he is a hoot at age 75. He has started giving me tools he no longer wants or uses. I have a all metal case 1/4" electric drill in my toolbox that he gave me a couple of years ago. It needs brushes and a new chuck but I don't want to mess with it for now because it is just as he gave it to me. It was the first "fathers day" present I ever bought him with money I had earned. I was nine at the time.

 

When my dad was 16 or so he rode a Santa Fe caboose to Kansas from the Texas Panhandle with a load of cattle. While he was there he swapped a saddle for a set of "Otowanna" wrenches which he used on the farm while raising his family.

I sorted and cleaned those wrenches inhis pickup toolbox many times when I was young.

Now they're in my toolbox, ready for the next project.

Great link to the days when I was younger and life was simpler.

 

My Dad was an all around handy-man, never had a repair guy in the house for anything. This was one of his small hammers, probably home made but its beat the crap out of hundreds of projects. Always seem to use it now...

 

Par-X was sold by Snap-on dealers, I have a 3/8 Snap-On rachet that my Dad gave me with a date-code of 1937. They gave me a new mechanism for it, I would never exchange the whole ratchet for a new one.